A hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle includes a driving motor generating power, an inverter supplying power to the driving motor, a low DC/DC converter (LDC), a high voltage battery, and the like.
Here, since a power conversion device includes various heating elements such as switching elements, a transformer, or an insulated gate bipolar mode transistor (IGBT), a cooling device for cooling heat generated according to an operation is required.
Here, the cooling device is classified into a water cooling type cooling device and an air cooling type cooling device. In general, a water cooling type cooling device is applied to an engine room on a front side of a vehicle and an air cooling type cooling device is applied to a trunk room on the rear side of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the water cooling type cooling device has a structure in which a cooling flow channel is shared by two LDCs and an inverter disposed to be adjacent to each other for the purpose of reducing the size and enhancing cooling efficiency.
That is, an LDC housing and an inverter housing are separately manufactured and subsequently coupled using a sealant or the like.
Cooling flow channels are formed on a lower surface of the LCD housing and an upper surface of the inverter housing, and a flow channel separator is installed therebetween.
In this structure, however, a configuration of the cooling flow channel of the inverter housing is too complicated to manufacture a mold and there is a difficulty in managing the cooling flow channel after being manufactured.
Also, since the inverter housing and the LCD housing are bonded using a sealant, there is a high possibility of generating a defect.